Hi everyone,
I’d love to get some advice and tips regarding my cat's litter because, despite keeping a close eye on them, we’re quite worried.
My cat (a Birman) gave birth a few days ago to 3 kittens.
● Kitten 1: 74g (approx. 2.6 oz)
● Kitten 2: 84g (approx. 3.0 oz)
● Kitten 3: 90g (approx. 3.2 oz)
From the first few hours, all three kittens were moving, meowing, and seemed to be breathing normally. The mum has been looking after them properly: she’s cleaned them, kept them warm, and is nursing them.
We’ve set up the little family in a quiet room with:
● a large cardboard box for a nest,
● clean blankets,
● a blanket over the top of the box (without closing it completely to allow for good airflow),
● water and dry food available for the mum.
At the start, we noticed the biggest kitten was often hogging one teat that seemed more developed than the others and would sometimes push the two smaller ones away. So, we started monitoring the feeds and helping the smaller ones get to the teats.
Unfortunately, the smallest kitten started losing weight:
● 74g (2.6 oz) → 70g (2.5 oz)
The second kitten also went from:
● 84g (3.0 oz) → 80g (2.8 oz)
Meanwhile, the biggest one went up from:
● 90g (3.2 oz) → 98g (3.5 oz)
We did notice the little one was nursing, sleeping normally, staying warm, and generally seemed to be behaving normally.
Sadly, despite all our monitoring and efforts, the smallest kitten passed away the following day.
Since then, there are 2 kittens left.
The latest weigh-ins are roughly:
● Middle kitten: 89g (3.1 oz), then between 87g and 88g (approx. 3.1 oz) depending on the weigh-in (the scales fluctuate slightly)
● Biggest: 102g (3.6 oz), then 104g (3.7 oz)
The biggest one is continuing to gain weight steadily.
We’re more worried about the second kitten. He nurses, sometimes for nearly 20 minutes, sleeps, stays nice and warm against his mum, crawls normally, and looks for the teats on his own. However, his weight isn't progressing as we’d hoped and he’s even lost a few grams at times.
We’ve bought some kitten formula from our vet, but we haven’t used it yet because the little one is still nursing from his mum and we’d rather avoid supplementing if it’s not necessary.
Is it normal for a kitten who is nursing, sleeping, and seems healthy not to gain as much weight as his brother/sister, who is putting on weight every day?
